In Memory Of
by Chiwizard
Summary: Something I thought up recently. Just because you're a cartoon character doesn't mean you get to avoid tragedy. In memory of all those who died on 911 and those they took down with them.


Hi. Me again.  
As you can see, i'm feeling a bit depressed. I was waiting around at the bus stop this morning, thinking about 9/11/01, and this story just came to me.  
I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, but this could be a good episode...  
Would have put this up _on_ 9/11/02, but Fanfiction.net was down.  
So, here you go.  
  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
  
  
  
  
  
…It's been a while. A while since I just walked around and let myself think about   
  
it. It was all so fast, you know? Everything fell apart all at once. Everything…  
  
  
  
  
First, the girls…  
  
  
  
  
…Yeah, both Taya and Mai. Taya was visiting New York, checking out the dance   
  
academy's so she could choose. I saw her dance once, she was great. She would have been   
  
the best. Mai, she was there for the shopping. Taya called us up, said she and Mai were   
  
sightseeing. That they were going to take pictures of NYC for us. Mentioned they were   
  
visiting the World Trade Center in the morning…wish they hadn't. As the entire world now   
  
knows, the morning they went was the morning of September 11. 9/11, short version, was bad   
  
enough from a distance. I've heard crazy rumors how the U.S. is gonna make it a national   
  
memorial day or something. All any of us knows is, the girls were both in one of the   
  
towers. Which, it don't matter to me anymore. What a way to go. I've seen some clips from   
  
it. Somehow, nothing seems to hit me more than the one where the couple leaps from a   
  
fifty-story window hand-in-hand. They knew they was gonna die, but they chose how. And   
  
with who. I hope the girls didn't die alone, if you gotta die it's better to die with   
  
friends, and we were all friends in the end. When they found the bodies and identified   
  
them, they were shipped back to Domino for burial. I was there, everybody was. I never   
  
seen anything as creepy and heartbreaking as Yami Bakura crying…  
  
  
  
  
  
But that was just the beginning…  
  
  
  
  
  
…Tristan, after the funeral he was out of it for a long time. We was all mourning,   
  
so it's no wonder we didn't see how bad he was taking it. Eventually, we all managed to   
  
move on. We still missed Taya and Mai something bad but we stopped letting it interfere   
  
with our lives. Not my best bud, he never was the same afterwards. Isn't weird how   
  
sometimes we miss things that are obvious way too late? Tristan never stopped mourning for   
  
Taya. He loved her, I think. That's the only reason I can come up with to explain it. But   
  
nothing can really explain what he did because of it. Maybe two months afterwards, he did   
  
the thing I never could see him even thinking about. It was your average day at school,   
  
study hall. Course I wasn't studying, but some other people were so it was real quiet.   
  
That made the gunshot seem twice as loud as it really was. Everybody jumped, and there was   
  
a couple more shots before the door opened. On the other side was my best friend, with a   
  
gun. I barely recognized him with that expression he was wearing. He shot another person,   
  
a girl who's name I don't remember. Kaiba, idiot, tried to grab the gun. A bang later,   
  
he's on the ground with a hole in his head. Everybody was trying to escape through the   
  
other door, I thought I saw somebody leaping out the window. Trist fired a couple more   
  
shots. He got Ryou in the side of the head, and Yugi in the back. Then he just stared at   
  
me. See, I didn't run. I stood in front of him, waited for him to move. He seemed to   
  
finally figure out what he was holding and what he had just done. "…Oh god…dear god I'm so   
  
sorry Joey…" He said, then held the gun to his head and fired the last bullet…  
  
  
  
  
  
My best friend for life, gone just like that…  
  
  
  
  
  
…Ryou was out when they took him to the hospital. Lots of bleeding, we were really   
  
worried. I had to hold Yami Bakura back after the doctors told us no one could see him.   
  
Two days later, we got word. Ryou was in a coma. The doctors had him on life-support, said   
  
there might be some brain damage. Yami Bakura stayed right by Ryou's side, sneaking back in   
  
whenever they tried to throw him out after visiting hours ended. Eventually, we convinced   
  
him to go home, said he'd be the first to know if anything happened to Ryou anyway. I   
  
visited Ryou on and off, talked to him some so he would know I was there. I went to visit   
  
Yami Bakura some too, he was staying cooped up at Ryou's house and after what happened to   
  
Trist I didn't want something like that to happen again. A month later, Ryou's dad had just   
  
ordered that Ryou was gonna stay on life-support until he woke up, he came home to something   
  
that changed his mind on it entirely. On the floor was Yami Bakura, his head blown open. A   
  
note and the gun he'd swiped were next to him. The note was in Egyptian. They told me what   
  
it said - "Gone to follow Ryou to the next world. Don't wait up." He always did have a   
  
sick sense of humor…  
  
  
  
  
  
They buried them together. You know, in the end even Yami Bakura can really surprise ya…  
  
  
  
  
  
…Kaiba…now, even though I hated Kaiba, nothing deserved what he got. I hated him   
  
then, but I don't think I can hate him now. How can you hate the dead? I couldn't, not   
  
after his little brother. Mokuba basically went insane after seeing his brother like that.   
  
Complete mental shutdown. Had to go to an institution after he tried to kill himself with a   
  
pill overdose. No one else bothers to visit him, or so the guys there tell me. Mokuba's   
  
nothing like the happy boy we met way back at the Duelist Kingdom. A kid with hair that   
  
black ain't supposed to be that pale. He barely talks to me, but I talk to him and I know   
  
he appreciates it. They told me he gets a little better after every one of my visits.   
  
Meanwhile, Kaiba Corp.'s under the control of a Board of Directors until Mokuba gets old   
  
enough to take over. If he recovers. Sometimes, when I see him, I doubt he'll ever really   
  
recover. No one ever really does…  
  
  
  
  
  
Man, I wonder sometimes if I'd go the same way if anything happened to my sis…  
  
  
  
  
  
…And then, there's Yugi. He's the one I really worry about. He went to the   
  
hospital after getting shot. He didn't die like Ryou ended up doing, the bullet only hit   
  
one organ. His spine. He's paralyzed from the shoulders down. He can't even sit up   
  
without help, which Yami gladly provides. I see him every day after school. He can't do   
  
anything but lie there, unless somebody carries him. He can't write, he can't Duel, and   
  
there's nothing else that would take his mind off the loss of feeling in most of his body.   
  
I know, I tried to find something. We both tried, me and Yami. I guess I've given up by   
  
now. Yug's been acting so down, it rips me up inside. Once when he was all moody and   
  
depressed, he mentioned something about how he had nothing to live for. Yami wasn't in the   
  
room, for which I'm grateful. Yami's having enough problems himself. I'm not sure if it's   
  
cause he couldn't do anything to stop all this from happening, or whether he's stuck on how   
  
he failed to help Yugi in time, but he's real messed up. I've seen him, he always carries a   
  
knife now. I only got one glance, but both his arms are covered in slits and scars. The   
  
only reason he won't go all the way is Yugi, so I'm making it my responsibility to keep both   
  
of them from doing something stupid. Like Tristan and Yami Bakura…  
  
  
  
  
  
I'm not letting you think that way, Yug. So help me I'll kill you myself if you try doing anything…  
  
  
  
  
  
…Then, there's me. The punk street kid. You'd think something like this woulda   
  
made me do something stupid early on, but that's never gonna happen. Why? One word:   
  
Serenity. My sister just got her eyesight back, I'm not gonna let her see anything like   
  
that from me. I'm the last one of our little gang left. Everybody avoids me like the   
  
plague, cept my friends and Serenity. Everyday, I do the same thing - go to school, go home   
  
to change. Then it's off to Yugi's. I stay with em a few hours, then I either go visit   
  
Mokuba or go hang with Serenity. After everything that's happened, the one good thing that   
  
happened was better than I could ever imagine. Mom moved back, saying she wanted to be   
  
close in case something happened to me. It's weird, Dad even stopped drinking. After   
  
visiting, I usually walk around till after dark. More often than not, I go right by the   
  
cemetery. See, here I am again. This time, I walked in, straight to the line of graves. I   
  
look at the stones. Tristan Taylor, Taya Gardner, Mai Valentine, Ryou Bakura, Yami Bakura,   
  
Seto Kaiba. All my friends, here in a row. Under each of the names there's a line. The   
  
usual RIP, Rest In Peace. Under 'em, there's something special we had put in for all of   
  
them. Cyber Commando, Magician of Faith, Harpy's Lady, Change of Heart, Millennium Ring,   
  
Blue Eyes White Dragon. Each one a tiny picture. Seemed fitting at the time…  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
~Fini~ 


End file.
